Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

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Early medieval · Hindu · India

Vijayanatheswarar Temple, Thiruvijayamangai

Thiruvijayamangai, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu · 10.9928°, 79.3017°

Vijayanatheswarar (Shiva)CholaChola
Sacred since
900 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
Medieval Chola
Chola

History & significance

A Shiva temple 11 km from Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district, built by the medieval Cholas in the architectural idiom of their period and counted among the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams hymned in the Tevaram. The goddess here is Mangalanayaki, with subsidiary shrines to Ganesha, Dakshinamurthy, Surya and Chandra.

Sthala katha — the legend

The temple marks the Mahabharata episode in which Arjuna sought the Pasupata weapon: he and Shiva, disguised as a hunter, both shot the demon Mookasura and quarrelled over the kill until Shiva revealed himself and granted the weapon.

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Related sites

Brihadisvara Temple
Thanjavur · India
1003–1010 CE
Brihadisvara Temple, Gangaikonda Cholapuram
Gangaikonda Cholapuram · India
c. 1035 CE
Airavatesvara Temple
Darasuram, Kumbakonam · India
mid-12th c. CE
Ranganathaswamy Temple
Srirangam, Tiruchirappalli · India
built up 10th–17th c.; Rajagopuram 1987
Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram
Chidambaram · India
core 10th c.; expanded to 13th c.
Arunachaleswarar Temple
Tiruvannamalai · India
9th-c. Chola core; 16th-c. gopurams

Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Chola